Fiber as a temperature sensor with portable Correlation-OTDR as interrogator

TL;DR

This paper presents a portable Correlation-OTDR system integrated with a multi-processor chip for fiber temperature sensing, demonstrating accurate measurements over short fiber lengths beyond traditional telecommunication uses.

Contribution

The work introduces a compact, portable Correlation-OTDR device with integrated processing for fiber temperature sensing, expanding its application scope.

Findings

Temperature measurement accuracy varies with fiber length.

System successfully measures temperature over 4 to 25 meters.

Portable unit size is 30 cm x 30 cm.

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the integration of a Correlation-OTDR into a portable unit (30 cm x 30 cm), based on a multi-processor system on chip (MPSoC) and a small formfactor pluggable (SFP) 2.5G transceiver. Going beyond telecommunication applications, this system is demonstrated for temperature measurements, based on the change of propagation delay with temperature in a short section of optical fiber. The temperature measurement accuracy is investigated as a function of the fiber length from 4 to 25 meters.